Predicting The Vikings’ Dead Money Means Deciphering Between Probable & Possible
K. Joudry
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No doubt, the NFL’s salary cap is a malleable monster, as the Vikings’ dead money in 2024 helps to demonstrate.
For some, though, the salary cap is also a mystifying monster. One of the common bits of lingo that gets tossed around is “dead money.” In essence, the term refers to a portion of the salary cap that is inaccessible in a particular year.
Over the Cap offers a succinct explanation: “Dead money is the amount of cap space that you will still devote to the salary cap even if the player is no longer on the team.”
The combination of having partially-guaranteed contracts alongside the NFL allowing teams to shuffle cap charges across several years means teams are commonly left with a dead money pile. But, to be sure, there’s a lot more than can be said and there are spots with more robust explanations.
The Vikings’ Dead Money in 2024
As of right now, the Vikings are sitting on $3,508,541 in dead money, an amount that Kwesi Adofo-Mensah won’t be able to use in 2024. That’s a number that’s near the bottom of the NFL. But, crucially, it won’t stay that way for too long.
Consider, for instance, the void-year players: Kirk Cousins, Danielle Hunter, and Marcus Davenport. Seeing the trio depart would involve Minnesota onboarding a stunning $50,206,667 in dead money. Accepting that amount would mean the Vikings will have a supremely difficult time competing in 2024.
And then there are the cut candidates. Moving on from Harrison Smith, Dean Lowry, and Patrick Jones would mean signing up for another $10,457,238 in inaccessible cap room. Now go ahead and smash all of those numbers together — the original $3,508,541, the void $50,206,667, & the cut $10,457,238 — and what’s the result?
A staggering $64,172,446.
Now, that’s not a likely outcome. Cousins, Davenport, and Hunter all have a shot at returning. And, of course, there’s no guarantee that the cut candidates get cut. Sometimes, the two sides reach an agreement to adjust the deal or there’s even a willingness from the team to leave a deal untouched.
Last year, the Vikings were working through plenty of dead money pain. Per Spotrac, the bill was tipping the scales at a bit above $46 million. Adam Thielen’s remaining money ($13.55M) had a lot to do with that final tally, but Dalvin Tomlinson, Dalvin Cook, Za’Darius Smith, and several others all joined the fun.
Kwesi Adofo-Mensah was always going to move Minnesota’s roster in a different direction. Part of that new direction was always going to involve moving on from older, expensive players. The process, though, is still ongoing as the (relatively) new GM makes decisions on long-time veterans such as Cousins, Hunter, and Harrison Smith.
But then the other crucial detail is that Adofo-Mensah has been around long enough for some of his own decisions to start being felt on the budgetary richter scale. The Davenport void money is a byproduct of his own free agency decision. So, too, was the Za’Darius result.
The same can be said for Jalen Reagor, Jesse Davis, and (if a cut occurs) Dean Lowry. To a certain extent, Adofo-Mensah is responsible for Cousins and Hunter, as well, given that he pursued partial solutions in 2023 at the cost of moving money into 2024.
At the end of the day, the Vikings are going to have enough wiggle room to put a dent into free agency in 2024. The Vikings’ dead money, though, is going to grow more burdensome in the coming days as consequential decisions are made for some excellent football players. Expect Minnesota’s dead money to soar into the tens of millions.
Editor’s Note: Information from Spotrac and Over the Cap helped with this piece.
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K. Joudry is the Senior Editor for Vikings Territory and PurplePTSD. He has been covering the Vikings full time since the summer of 2021. He can be found on Twitter and as a co-host for Notes from the North, a humble Vikings podcast.